write an essay on world health organisation

World Health Organization’s Strengths & Weaknesses Essay

Introduction, prerequisites for the creation, who activities, counter-arguments for who.

Throughout the history of human development, human life has been one of the central values. As a result, a significant number of activities and events have been carried out every year to improve the quality of life and increase its duration. As a rule, the recommendations or instructions created are supported in other countries if they are considered adequate. This is how global cooperation between states on the health of the world’s population takes place. The World Health Organization, established in the middle of the last century to regulate and coordinate actions of different countries, enjoys the highest authority and respect. On the other hand, there is now a growing body of negative feedback about WHO’s work on various conspiracy theories. The author of this work is deeply convinced that the activity of the global health control body is beneficial and helps humankind to solve serious medical problems. The purpose of this position paper is to identify the importance of an institution such as WHO and its strengths and weaknesses.

In the history of humanity, there have been many preconditions for the creation of a global body to monitor the level of world medicine and health care. The emergence of a comprehensive cooperation between different countries in the field of health is due to the need for international coordination of actions to sanitize the territories of states in connection with periodically occurring epidemics and pandemics (Medcalf, 2018). This was most clearly manifested during the classical Middle Ages when specific measures against epidemics in Europe began to be applied (Cueto, Brown, & Fee, 2019). Such measures included all kinds of quarantines, infirmaries, and isolation of sick people or animals. The low effectiveness of sanitation and epidemiological measures at the national level has led to a search for solutions on an interstate basis.

After World War II, the United Nations (UN), established in 1945 on the initiative of the winning countries, became the leading organization of the international community. In February 1946, the UN conference decided on the need to create a specialized UN agency for health (Cueto et al., 2019). This led to the formation of the World Health Organization — WHO, in April, 1948 (Medcalf, 2018). The Constitution of WHO proclaimed the basic principles of cooperation among its Member States, which are necessary for harmonious relations among all peoples and for their security (Medcalf, 2018). It is worth mentioning that people all over the world have always supported different points of view on any issue. This is also true of the need for an organization such as WHO.

On the one hand, the importance of WHO’s work is beyond any doubt: its activities have an impact on all people living on our planet. It starts with the food that people eat and the water that they drink and ends with the safety of medicines that are used to treat and prevent diseases that threaten humanity. In the absence of global authority, no single country alone can solve all the health problems facing the world, the list of which is continually growing (Cueto et al., 2019). In this case, WHO comes to the rescue: the international organization links medical advances from different cultures and helps countries achieve medical well-being.

Moreover, another function of the organization is to inform the public about the current world situation and potential scenarios from a scientifically proven point of view — every year, WHO publishes medical statistics and recommendations for people to improve their quality of life. For example, according to a report released for 2019, male mortality worldwide is 7.6 percent higher than female, and several factors contribute to this (WHO, 2019). WHO states that the main threats affecting male mortality are coronary heart disease and road traffic injuries. These annual reports provide a different way of looking at one’s lifestyle and perhaps even abandoning bad habits in favor of longer life expectancy.

An undeniably important mission that reaffirms the importance of the global health authority is to maintain social justice in health care. In less developed countries, where racism, chauvinism, and xenophobia still exist, not everyone has access to medicine and treatment. The objective of WHO is to achieve improvements in health care and more equitable access to health care in all countries. The organization is convinced that wherever people live, they need equal health care.

The organization’s work takes the form of annual World Health Assemblies, where representatives from different countries discuss the most critical health issues. They are chaired by a Director-General chosen by an executive committee that includes representatives from 30 countries. The functions of the CEO are to provide annual estimates and financial statements to the organization. He or she has the authority to obtain necessary health-related information directly from government and private institutions. Also, he or she is obliged to keep regional offices informed of all territorial issues.

Several of the most important activities carried out by the World Health Organization can be highlighted today: the so-called Millennium Development Goals (Cueto et al., 2019). The goals of particular interest to WHO include the elimination of the most dangerous diseases, the improvement of conditions for pregnant women and children, the prevention of chronic diseases, the promotion of human mental health, and the development of adolescent-friendly lifestyle ideas. WHO’s work has already been recognized as having reached some of the most significant targets (WHO, 2019). These include eliminating smallpox, controlling the spread of HIV, and reducing deaths due to malaria.

It is worth noting, however, that the opposite view on this problem exists. A large part of the world’s population is convinced that this global health body has wrong priorities and aims to destroy humanity in veiled ways. The author of this document does not support this view because he believes that the WHO provides an incredible increase in the global quality of life. In response to the question about the need for a global health authority, some people believe that WHO exceeds its stated mandate. They see such organizations as a conspiracy to exterminate humanity. These same people tend to pursue conspiracy theories that call for the abandonment of vaccines and all treatments. A critical analysis of WHO’s work may indeed reveal some of the control that the organization exercises over the world’s population. However, it should be understood that this control is necessary for the provision of improved health services (Cueto et al., 2019). For example, WHO’s recommendations for combating the most dangerous diseases, such as cancer, HIV, or tuberculosis, are designed to help as many people as possible to stay well and prevent the disease from spreading in time.

In conclusion, despite the seeming conspiracy mission that WHO allegedly follows, the organization does have essential functions. WHO’s work has eliminated diseases that were once deadly, such as smallpox. Moreover, this organization has reduced the HIV pandemic and reduced mortality from infectious diseases, including malaria. The importance of the global health watchdog has also been demonstrated by the availability of annual web-based statistics that show global trends in mortality and fertility, as well as the necessary steps to prevent deadly diseases. Based on the above, the author of this paper tends to view the existence and work of WHO as fundamental to global health.

Cueto, M., Brown, T. M., & Fee, E. (2019). The World Health Organization: A History . Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Medcalf, A. (2018). Between art and information: Communicating world health, 1948–70. Journal of Global History , 13 (1), 94-120.

WHO. (2019). Life expectancy and causes of death . Web.

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Essay on World Health Organization (WHO)

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Health , United Nations , Malaria , Organization , World , Programme , AMP , The World

Published: 10/23/2019

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Good health is considered as being one of the most important aspects of quality life. Arguably, it can be said to be one of the propellers of a sound economy. For this reason, many countries and also non-governmental organizations have come up with a number of health organizations so as to promote health issues in different parts of the world. In this case, I will base my analysis on the World Health Organization (WHO).

World Health Organization is a United Nations agency that undertakes the responsibilities of coordinating international public health. Besides, it also undertakes part in the prevention and treatment of diseases for instance, Malaria. It was instituted in 1948 and Geneva Switzerland set as its headquarters (Burci & Vignes, 2004). The organization took its consent and resources from Health Organization which was one of the agencies of the League of Nations. As per its constitution, its major objective is to ensure that people attain the highest possible level of health.

The organization runs a number of progammes and projects which includes; Global Malaria Programme, Prequalification of Medicines Programme, Global Burden of Diseases project, and African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control. It has also carried research and created policy documents such as the PAHO Policy on Research for Health. It should also be noted that, the organization has established partnership with some private partners such as the Institute for Oe World Health and the Malaria Vaccine Initiative, in its research work.

In terms of structure, the organization has about 191 UN members. The delegates in the World Health Assembly are usually appointed by the member states, (Burci & Vignes, 2004). The WHO Assembly is the ultimate decision making body of the organization. It makes policies as well as approving any proposed programme budget. The organization obtains its finances from the contributions that each and every member party makes towards the activities of this organization. For efficient management, regional offices have been set in different parts in all the continents.

Reference List

Burci, G. L. & Vignes, C. (2004). World Health Organization . New Jersey: Kluwer Law International.

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• World Health Day Essay

An Introduction

The World Health Organization (WHO) was established on 7 April 1948. Realizing the importance of health for successful life all over the world, World Health Day is celebrated on 7 April on the day of the establishment of the World Health Organization (WHO). World Health Day is a globally celebrated Health Awareness Day. It is said that health is life, but in today's busy and stressed life, humans are not able to pay full attention to their health. Human health is being adversely affected due to a hectic lifestyle, work and stress. World Health Day is celebrated every year to create awareness of the importance of health. On this day, a message is given to make people aware of their health and the government is motivated to formulate healthy policies. 

Aim of Celebrating

The World Health Organization celebrates World Health Day on 7 April every year to improve the level of health of people around the world. The idea is that every human being gets good health facilities at an affordable rate. Millions of people around the world are prey to many terrible diseases. Hence, discussions and awareness on the topics like prevention and proper arrangement of the diseases etc. are also included as the main objective of Health Day. According to the World Health Organization, being physically, mentally and socially healthy is the definition of human health. 

Anti-larvae and pesticides are sprayed in different areas to prevent outbreaks of mosquitoes. People are made aware of the prevention of infectious diseases. Awareness campaigns are organized at the district and block levels on this day to prevent vector-borne diseases. 

A theme is set each year for World Health Day. The subject includes a special health concern. World Health Day activities revolve around the chosen topic. In general, activities are organized to indicate the importance of health. People are encouraged to change their unhealthy lifestyles and choose a healthy lifestyle that includes a healthy diet and exercise. The World Health Assembly sets a specific theme for World Health Day each year. Various activities are organized on World Health Day to make people aware of the specific subject covered that year and the importance of health in general. As a part of the World Health Day celebrations, various events and activities are organized to help people understand how to avoid various health issues and live a healthy life. Demonstrations and speeches are given to honour those fighting against various diseases. The theme for World Health Day 2020 is to support nurses and midwives. T Speeches are given to motivate and encourage the patients and members of their families to know that they are not alone in their fight. Various skits are organized and games are played to make these points understandable to the people in an interesting way. Children are our future and they should be specially made aware to lead a healthy lifestyle.

School Celebrations:

Many schools and colleges around the world make it a point to celebrate World Health Day. Speech, sports, quiz competitions and other activities are organized in the school to help children learn about the importance of keeping them healthy in a simple and easy way. Essay writing and debate competitions are also held. Students actively participate in these events.

The history of World Day goes back to 1948. The World Health Organization felt the need to involve leading physicians from all over the world to make important decisions related to various health matters. It organized the World Health Assembly in 1948 for this purpose. It was the first World Health Assembly and had 194 member nations. The WHO is governed by its member states which have been elected to form the world's highest health policy-setting body. 

The Health Minister of the member states is a part of this body. It was for the first time during the World Health Assembly that it was proposed to dedicate a special day for world health. All member states agreed that it was a good idea and April 7 was declared as World Health Day. The need for World Health Day was felt due to the increasing number of diseases worldwide. Many infectious diseases spread all the time in different parts of the world and lead to epidemics. This causes panic among people. Through the activities organized on World Health Day, people are made aware of various diseases and ways to avoid them.

In today's time, the biggest reason for people not to be healthy is consuming junk food. Many people prefer readymade food and outdoor food because they are tasty and easily available. Junk food is made of many types of chemicals. This is the biggest reason that so many diseases are introduced. If we want to stay healthy, then we should always eat healthy food and live a healthy lifestyle.

Today everyone's jobs are such that they need to sit in front of the laptop for hours. Even after returning home, they are stuck to television screens or mobile phones. Children are seen watching TV or phones for a long time. This is the root cause of various diseases. Children should take part in outdoor sports like cricket, football and badminton instead of sitting at home. They should be involved in physical activities like walking, running, cycling etc. It is good for our physical and mental health. People these days are so engrossed in their work that they have taken their health as secondary. World Health Day is celebrated to highlight the importance of making our health a priority. We will be able to handle other aspects of our life efficiently only when we are healthy. It has been rightly said that a healthy brain resides in a healthy body.

FAQs on World Health Day Essay

1.  When and why is World Health Day celebrated?

World Health Day is celebrated on 7 April on the day of the establishment of the World Health Organization (WHO). World Health Day is a globally celebrated Health Awareness Day. It is said that health is life, but in today's busy and stressed life, humans are not able to pay full attention to their health. Human health is being adversely affected due to hectic life and stress. World Health Day is celebrated every year for awareness about health. On this day, people are made aware of the importance of health. The government is motivated to formulate healthy policies and take the right actions.

2.  What was the Theme of World Health Day this year?

The theme for World Health Day 2020 is to support nurses and midwives.

3. Where can I find the World Health Day Essay for students in English?

The students can find the World health day essay at Vedantu.com with no hassle at all. This essay is easy to read and written for students in English which is comprehensible and smart. The students who wish to download the various kinds of study material available at Vedantu just need to sign in using the Vedantu website or the Vedantu app. This essay is prepared for students for their convenience by our maestro teachers who make sure that nothing is left behind.

4.What is the importance of celebrating World Health Day?

World health day signifies the improvement of people’s health every year. It encourages the idea of affordable and convenient treatment for every being on earth. The people are educated about various health-related topics and how to keep themselves safe from various unwanted diseases, terrifying thousands or millions of lives by preventing them. World health day also supports the idea of every person being healthy and disease-free in the coming future. It is given a lot of importance in public places or centres such as schools, hospitals, etc.

5. How can I write a detailed essay on World Health Day?

The students can write a detailed essay on World Health day by first knowing and learning about the little details. These can be called keywords. On these Keywords, the students can form various sentences easily. To improve their essay writing practice, the students must practice every now and then for it. This is a simple method and if you are a beginner then start writing essays for easy topics or the topics you know more about. Then on moving further start studying complex topics to which you aren’t introduced.

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Health as Complete Well-Being: The WHO Definition and Beyond

Thomas schramme.

Department of Philosophy, University of Liverpool, Gillian Howie House, Mulberry Street, Liverpool, L69 7SH, UK

The paper defends the World Health Organisation (WHO) definition of health against widespread criticism. The common objections are due to a possible misinterpretation of the word complete in the descriptor of health as ‘complete physical, mental and social well-being’. Complete here does not necessarily refer to perfect well-being but can alternatively mean exhaustive well-being, that is, containing all its constitutive features. In line with the alternative reading, I argue that the WHO definition puts forward a holistic account, not a notion of perfect health. I use historical and analytical evidence to defend this interpretation. In the second part of the paper, I further investigate the two different notions of health (holistic health and perfect health). I argue that both ideas are relevant but that the holistic interpretation is more adept for political aims.

Introduction

‘Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’ ( World Health Organisation [WHO], 1948 : 100). In this paper, I argue that this famous WHO definition of health is fully adequate. Criticism that has been levied against it is based on a specific interpretation that is not the only alternative. In addition to defending the WHO definition, I will discuss two different meanings of the concept of health, which can lead to confusion if not properly kept apart. This is important, for historical and analytical reasons, because the WHO definition can indeed be interpreted in different ways and because we need to get to grips with the differences between types of definitions of health. My second aim in this paper is hence to explain and to properly keep apart two different conceptualisations of health. 1

As regards the WHO definition, I will claim that critics have read the word complete in the phrase ‘complete physical, mental and social well-being’ in a way that goes against the likely intentions of the draftees of the definition. The common objections, for instance, accusing the WHO definition of utopianism and overreach, are based on an implicit assumption, according to which complete is a quantitative term. In other words, critics assume that the phrase means that health is a state of well-being to the largest degree. I will call this interpretation perfect health . So, the critics claim that the WHO identifies health with the largest degree of well-being, that is, with perfect well-being or—in less technical terms—with happiness.

However, the term complete can also have a qualitative meaning. 2 When we say that something is a complete specimen of its kind, then we mean that it has all the features that are constitutive of it. For instance, a complete dinner is one that contains a starter, a main dish and a dessert. Accordingly, complete well-being might be understood as a state that is exhaustive of all constitutive features of well-being. These are, according to the WHO, physical, mental and social aspects. I will call this holistic health . 3 In brief, I will claim that the WHO endorses a holistic account of health, not a perfectionist account. 4

In the second section, I briefly introduce the most important objections to the WHO definition. They have mainly to do with an alleged confusion of health with happiness, which then purportedly leads to a form of medicalisation of human life. In the third section, I discuss the likely intentions behind the WHO definition. I do this by referring to the two readings mentioned before, perfect health and holistic health. There are systematic and historical reasons as to why the WHO plausibly intended a holistic interpretation of health. In the fourth section, I discuss the two interpretations of health in their own right. I introduce their purposes and some objections to either notion. As is the case with many concepts we use, there is no single right or wrong conceptualisation of health. However, I argue that a holistic concept of health is better suited for the purposes of the WHO and more generally for political and economic agendas.

Criticism of the WHO Definition

The health definition of the WHO has often been dismissed by philosophers of medicine and medical scientists (for an overview, see Leonardi, 2018 ). One of the main reasons has been the alleged confusion of health and happiness, that is, a state of complete well-being. 5 If health is understood as happiness, it has been argued, there are many highly problematic consequences, most importantly the medicalisation of people’s lives. After all, health is also interpreted as a basic human right in the same document: ‘The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition’ ( WHO, 1948 : 100). If people fall short of the ideal of perfection, that is, if they are not in a state of complete well-being, their health ought to be enhanced. With health care being an important instrument to reach health, the lives of people seem to fall under the remit of health-related institutions, especially medicine, in all their aspects. For instance, if someone is sad, they lack health in the sense of complete well-being. Accordingly, following the WHO constitution, they apparently have a justified claim to be made healthy, that is, happy, potentially by using mood-enhancing drugs or other medical means.

A prominent and influential critique of the WHO definition stems from Daniel Callahan: ‘[T]he most specific complaint about the WHO definition is that its very generality, and particularly its association of health and general well-being as a positive ideal, has given rise to a variety of evils. Among them are the cultural tendency to define all social problems, from war to crime in the streets, as “health” problems’ ( Callahan, 1973 : 78; see also Kass, 1975 : 14, for a very similar critique). This is an example of the critique of overreach (cf. Bickenbach, 2017 : 962), that is, of applying a medical concept to areas that pose other types of problems than healthcare problems.

Another problem that has repeatedly been pointed out is the utopianism of the definition. It seems that ‘[t]he requirement for complete health “would leave most of us unhealthy most of the time”’ ( Huber et al ., 2011 : 235; quoting Smith, 2008 ; see also Saracci, 1997 : 1409, 1409; Card, 2017 ). This can specifically be deemed problematic in relation to people with disabilities, chronic diseases and people of advanced age. They would by definition permanently be missing out on health and accordingly on well-being. However, such a view seems to conflict with the perspectives of relevant groups of people themselves ( Fallon and Karlawish, 2019 : 1104).

Despite the widespread criticism from many different disciplinary backgrounds, the WHO never amended their definition of health. It seems that they did not see a need to change their point of view. In the following section, I will argue that the critique is indeed based on a misunderstanding of the WHO’s perspective.

Interpreting the WHO Definition of Health

As explained, I will argue that the WHO defines health as holistic health, not as perfect health. To bolster this claim about the intentions of the institution, I need to consider the history of its constitution. In this section, I will therefore rely on historical documents, which are in the public domain. In addition, I have benefitted from an enormously helpful recent publication by Lars Thorup Larsen (2022) , who gives a detailed account specifically of the genealogy of the WHO definition, based on archival research.

An important fact that supports my reading of the WHO’s intentions is that the word complete was only inserted into the definition at the very final stages of its conception. It is fairly obvious that it was as a form of editorial amendment, not a substantial change, because otherwise it would have required extensive debate. If the word complete would have fixed the intended definition of health to a perfectionist account, this would have either stirred up a debate or would have had to be uncontroversial. However, there is no evidence in the relevant documents that the draftees of the WHO constitution definitely understood health as perfection. The term complete , according to my reading, was rather intended to clarify the phrase ‘physical, mental and social well-being’, the latter of which had been part of the definition since the drafting period. 6 The word complete summarises and jointly describes the three aspects of well-being. It also adds a rhetorical contrast to the second part of the sentence that denies the sufficiency of the absence of disease or infirmity for health. A perhaps better way to express the notion would have been to state that: health is a state of complete well-being, that is, a state that comprises physical, mental and social elements. But this locution would not have worked straightforwardly in a one-sentence definition, which was apparently aimed at by the WHO.

The late arrival of the term complete of course does not present conclusive evidence that the WHO did not intend to push an account of perfect health. The historical records are not sufficient in this respect. The final draft of the constitution, which had been penned by the Technical Preparatory Committee, was discussed at a meeting in New York City in 1946. 7 The relevant draft definition reads: ‘Health is not only the absence of disease, but also a state of physical and mental well-being and fitness resulting from positive factors, such as adequate feeding, housing and training’ ( WHO, 1947 : 58). The final version, which was eventually adopted, had been prepared by the so-called Committee I, which ‘had given careful consideration to amendments submitted by the delegations of South Africa, Mexico, Australia, Belgium, Netherlands, Chile, United Kingdom, Iran, China, Philippines, Poland, Venezuela, United States of America and Canada’ ( WHO, 1948 : 44). Unfortunately, there are no published minutes or other forms of evidence in relation to this decisive period—decisive, as far as the introduction of the term complete is concerned. We simply do not know who added the word. This would have been important, though, to get a better grasp of the intentions behind the addition. 8

Importantly, many members of the Technical Preparatory Committee, who had been involved to different degrees in the drafting of the WHO constitution, came from a public health background ( Farley, 2008 : 12ff.; Cueto et al ., 2019 : 39ff.). Renowned proponents of so-called social medicine, such as Andrija Štampar, René Sand, Karl Evang and Thomas Parran, were leading members of the drafting group. This is significant because public health usually has a different understanding of the concept of health than clinical medicine. Whereas for the latter, health can be defined as absence of disease ( Smith, 2008 ), that is, in absolute terms, health in public health is a multifarious and scalar notion ( Schramme, 2017 ; Valles, 2018 : 31ff.).

In clinical medicine, health is often understood as absence of disease. This makes sense because the focus is on individual patients. These either have a disease or not. Patients might suffer from a more or less severe disease, but that does not mean that they are more or less diseased than others. Similarly, health over and above the absence of disease is not usually the focus of clinical medicine. If there is no disease, then that is sufficient to establish health. There is no need to refer to health in a positive way, that is, to define it in its own terms.

In contrast, public health scientists usually refer to populations. In their parlance, chosen populations can be more or less healthy than comparison groups. For instance, it might be declared that mine workers are less healthy than millionaires. This does not mean that all mine workers acutely suffer from a disease; rather, it means that they are more likely to fall ill, due to their circumstances of life. Public health has traditionally studied the causes of disease and has made big strides in the prevention of disease. Accordingly, its focus is upstream, as it is sometimes put ( Marmot, 2010 : 41; Venkatapuram, 2011 : 189), towards the conditions that make disease more likely. Health becomes a dispositional term that allows for different grades.

From a public health perspective, it is fairly obvious that health is ‘more than the absence of disease’. It is more in the sense of additionally requiring dispositional elements, not because it is a quantitatively better condition than medical normality (i.e. the absence of disease). People who live in destitute circumstances might not suffer from a disease, but they are often lacking in terms of a sufficient disposition to maintain minimal health.

The public health perspective, therefore, is a gradual perspective on health, allowing parlance of more and less health, or being healthier than others. Although such a perspective does not necessarily lead to an account of perfect health, it is nevertheless compatible with the latter. People with a perfect health disposition—marked by a very low probability to fall ill—might accordingly be deemed in a state of perfect health. Importantly, falling below the ideal point of perfection on a scale does not imply having a disease. In other words, not being perfectly healthy would not constitute a condition of being un healthy; it would merely mean being less healthy than others ( Schramme 2019 : 29ff.). This shows that some of the criticism levied against the WHO definition, even if understood as a perfectionist account, is implausible. More specifically, it does not necessarily follow that, for instance, people with disabilities would be constantly deemed unhealthy because they lack perfect health. As explained, health is not a binary term according to the relevant perspective.

So far, I have argued that the WHO definition is supposed to allow for grades of health. For that purpose, it takes its cue from public health perspectives, though I do not want to claim that it is identical to it. After all, the WHO definition still incorporates the traditional medical perspective on health as absence of disease. There are, nevertheless, important qualms to do with the notion of perfect health. The WHO refers to health as a state of well-being and this might itself be deemed problematic. To be sure, the conceptual connection between health and the good life for human beings has long been established ( Temkin, 1973 ). 9 The connection also makes sense from an experiential point of view. Health has indeed to do with how we fare. Still, if we read the definition as a perfectionist account of health, it would define health as perfect well-being. If that were the case, this would apparently lead to the alleged dangerous confusion of health and happiness mentioned earlier. After all, sufficient health but not happiness seems to be the business of welfare state institutions. It is true, of course, that health care from a public health perspective includes vastly more than just medical care, especially aspects to do with work, education and the environment. Yet, we normally see good reasons to restrict the remit of state institutions to a form of needs provision, basic security and enablement of self-determination (cf. Goodin, 1988 : 363ff.). So, if perfect health were the focus of the state, it would probably end up becoming unjustifiably expansive.

I do not believe that the WHO is guilty of this charge. To be sure, there are reasons for thinking that a public health perspective occasionally tends towards an expansive view of health politics (cf. Preda and Voigt, 2015 ). Yet, it is hardly imaginable that a nascent institution—still precarious in its status at the time of drafting its constitution including the health definition—would intend to basically take over the whole established welfare state agenda and indeed even to expand it by making perfect health a political aim. This is even less credible, as one of the global health institutions predating the WHO, the League of Nations Health Organization , had come under fire for its alleged political overreach during these times of increasing national isolationism ( Cueto et al ., 2019 : 20ff.). There were, accordingly, strong political reasons not to endorse a perfectionist health definition, or at least to keep such ambitions hidden from plain view, especially in 1946, with very fresh memories of the dangers of totalitarianism being abundant. 10

A more science-oriented reason as to why the WHO is unlikely to have opted for an account of perfect health is that such an ideal is not measurable. After all, it refers to an abstract point of reference. To quantify the health statuses of populations, scientists need metrics and they need to determine thresholds. In other words, they need to plot health along a scale. If health were only a hypothetical point on a limitless scale, it would hardly be a useful metric for scientific purposes. Again, this is not a decisive reason to reject the perfectionist interpretation of the WHO definition. But there are numerous publications by health scientists who use the WHO definition without running into the mentioned problems ( Breslow, 1972 ; Greenfield and Nelson, 1992 ). So, it seems that many scientists do not assume the perfectionist health interpretation (see also Ware et al ., 1981 : 621). 11

In contrast, the holistic health interpretation leads to the following point of view: Health is seen as a state of well-being with numerous aspects—physical, mental and social. 12 Given these dimensions of well-being, health statuses can be assessed in a combined approach, taking the full range of health-related factors into account. Importantly, health is not a fictional point at the end of the scale, but any point along a scale. Some people might have a comparatively bad health status, some might be in good health; all will be positioned along a spectrum. From the health definition itself, nothing follows as to when health is good enough or so bad that state institutions need to interfere. In other words, important political decisions regarding thresholds of sufficient health are not prejudged if we follow a holistic health definition. Such a perspective is much more amenable to the political remit of the WHO, which ended up with fairly limited interventionist power (cf. Packard, 2016 : 99ff.; Larsen, 2022 : 123ff.).

The overarching focus of the holistic health interpretation is maintenance of health. It is thereby acknowledged that to counter the various threats to health not only medical means are required, but a dynamic level of physical, mental and social assets. This has been an insight of early public health practitioners. For instance, Henry Sigerist, who evidently had a significant indirect influence on the WHO definition via Raymond Gautier’s draft ( Larsen, 2022 : 119), had already been concerned with the aim of health maintenance. 13 This provides a dynamic element in the conceptualisation of health, which is also implicit in the WHO definition, despite its reference to a state , which seemingly suggests a static view. When Sigerist writes that ‘health is more than the absence of disease’ ( Sigerist, 1932 : 293), this is meant as a conclusion to an argument acknowledging the environmental and social determinants of health. His point becomes quite clear in a later quote:

A healthy individual is a man [ sic! ] who is well balanced bodily and mentally, and well adjusted to his physical and social environment. He is in full control of his physical and mental faculties, can adapt to environmental changes, so long as they do not exceed normal limits; and contributes to the welfare of society according to his ability. Health is, therefore, not simply the absence of disease: it is something positive, a joyful attitude toward life, and a cheerful acceptance of the responsibilities that life puts upon the individual ( Sigerist, 1941 : 100). 14

Sigerist’s terminology, referring to being well balanced, adjusted and in full control, is not aiming towards an ideal of perfection. Rather, he is stating several elements of a good human life within the limits of reality. He believes that health enables an affirmative view of individuals towards their life, not unlimited happiness.

In this section, I have discussed the WHO definition partly from an analytical point of view, in that I distinguished two possible interpretations, a perfectionist and a holistic account of health. I have added historical information regarding the drafting period. Both analytical and historical reasons speak in favour of my thesis that the WHO definition should be read as defining health in a holistic way. Health as complete well-being refers to the full range of factors determining a specific disposition of people to prevent ill health (cf. Ware et al ., 1981 ). This ties in nicely with a more recent official statement by the WHO, the Ottawa Charter, which I will cite as final support of my thesis: ‘[H]ealth is a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living. Health is a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities’ ( WHO, 1986 ). Health is not the best possible state of well-being but a multifarious instrument, including external as well as internal resources, to pursue a good life.

Why We Need to Distinguish Between Holistic Health and Perfect Health

I have not argued that a conceptualisation of perfect health is wrong-headed or even harmful. Rather, I claimed that perfect health is not the notion that the WHO has been after. It is of import to distinguish between the two notions of health introduced earlier, because confusing them will lead to cross-purposes, not merely in respect to the WHO definition. In this section I will take a closer look at the two health conceptions and discuss the purposes which they can serve. I will also hint at problems with both interpretations that might eventually call for terminological reform.

Holistic health allows to pursue multiple political and economic purposes. For instance, it enables comparisons between groups of people and is especially adept to highlight social inequalities that have an impact on population health. This makes it more pertinent for political purposes than a negative conceptualisation of health as the absence of disease. The latter is absolute or non-comparative and hence does not allow for any interesting information about health-related inequalities between persons.

Importantly, in contrast to perfect health, the scope of holistic health can be contoured by thresholds. As explained, complete well-being can be understood as having all elements that are constitutive of it. What exactly that means in relation to health is of course contested, and I have already insinuated that the WHO did not set a threshold, perhaps intentionally. Still, the required level of holistic health could be determined via political decision-making processes. This makes holistic health open for different substantial interpretations and hence political ambitions.

Despite these advantages, the conceptualisation of health as holistic health has serious drawbacks. 15 Most significantly, the distinction between health conditions and determinants of health becomes blurry ( Bickenbach, 2017 : 968, 968; van Druten et al ., 2022 : 2). 16 Environmental and social determinants of health come with certain probabilities, sometimes unknown, to fall ill or to stay healthy, but they are not constituents of medical conditions themselves; rather, they are their presumed causes ( Whitbeck, 1981 : 617). As we have seen in the previous example of miners’ health, a poor health disposition is not the same as being unhealthy, that is, suffering from disease or illness. 17

The potential confusion between poor health dispositions and disease or illness leads to normative confusion as well, especially when we are assessing claims of justice. Disease has a different normative status than a relatively bad health disposition. Arguably, disease has an immediate urgency in relation to human needs, in terms of threatening or involving harm. A comparatively high propensity to fall ill or membership in a vulnerable population as such does not obviously have such normative urgency. Important normative discussions about health justice are short-circuited if we transfer direct urgency to alleviating relatively poor holistic health statuses without thinking about the impact on the lives of real people and merely consider relative positions.

One way forward would be to acknowledge the basic insights of a holistic conceptualisation of health but to nevertheless distinguish between health as a condition of an individual and health-related traits and circumstances that have an impact on the maintenance of individual and population health. We would accordingly need a more adequate term than health for combining both of these aspects—an organismic condition, that is, health in the more narrowly medical sense, and a set of health-related resources. Such a revisionary conceptual perspective can only be alluded to here (see Davies and Schramme, 2022 ).

Accounts of perfect health have a different purpose than accounts of holistic health. The former set an ideal; an ambitious target for individual or social aspiration. According to this perspective, a person can always be potentially healthier, because there is no fixed point on a scale which suffices for health. It seems to me that such an interpretation of health is fully adequate for specific purposes, for instance, introducing a utopian goal and to stop people from becoming complacent about an important element of a good human life. Perfect health shares features with traditional accounts of the virtues, although it is not itself supposed to be a virtue. Virtues are similar to perfect health in that they describe human excellences. Virtues are excellences of character, or perfect dispositions to act fully adequately; health is excellence in relation to well-being, or a perfect organismic disposition to keep harmful and disadvantageous conditions at bay. Becoming virtuous can be an aspiration for human beings and so can becoming perfectly healthy.

However, there is a danger of imposing such an ideal on everyone. If we always have to strive for more health, then we might lose sight of other values, such as pursuing friendships, taking risks or enjoying unhealthy choices. This is a real risk in many modern societies, where health has been turned into a kind of religion and individual mission ( Katz, 1997 ). Socially, similar developments can be studied in relation to so-called ‘healthism’ and generally the moralisation of health ( Conrad, 1992 ). 18 The problems intensify if health dispositions and risk factors are not clearly distinguished from health conditions. Every single action a person pursues might have an impact on their health, according to the perfectionist health account. Hence, if combined with a prescriptive reading of the ideal—as something to be sought—then health can turn into a totalitarian imperative. This would clearly undermine the initial purpose of setting an ideal.

Whether perfect health will fail to meet its purposes will be established by experience and through history. It is not a necessary feature of the account. As mentioned, there are warning signs. However, more importantly, there is a need to clearly distinguish between holistic health and perfect health because perfect health, in contrast to holistic health, should never be the remit of state institutions.

Conclusions

‘Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’ ( WHO, 1948 : 100). This definition allows for two different interpretations. A perfectionist account, where health describes a hypothetical, perfect state of well-being, or a holistic account, where health is a state of exhaustive well-being, including all relevant dimensions of its constitutive elements. I have argued that the WHO intended to support a holistic account. I provided analytical and historical reasons for this point of view.

To distinguish between the two interpretations of health is important for systematic reasons as well, not merely in relation to the proper interpretation of the WHO’s definition of health. The two different accounts serve different purposes and run into different types of problems, as I have highlighted in this paper. Still, both are perfectly valid notions of health.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Lars Thorup Larsen and one of the two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments.

1 There can, of course, be even more than just these two conceptualisations of health. For instance, many would probably define health simply in terms of the absence of disease or illness. Indeed, one of the reasons why the WHO definition has raised concerns is probably due to its explicit diversion from the widespread conceptualisation in negative terms, that is, as absence of something.

2 The Oxford Dictionary of English (2015) entry on the adjective forms of complete states: ‘1. having all the necessary or appropriate parts: a complete list of courses offered by the university | no woman’s wardrobe is complete without this pretty top ( … ) 2. [attributive] (often used for emphasis) to the greatest extent or degree; total: a complete ban on smoking | their marriage came as a complete surprise to me ’.

3 The term holistic has been used in relation to health by Lennart Nordenfelt (see Nordenfelt, 1995 : 12ff., 35ff.). By using this term, I do not want to claim that Nordenfelt endorses the WHO definition.

4 A slightly different distinction between two meanings of the concept of complete— complete in an ‘all-or-nothing sense’ and in a sense that ‘admits of degrees’—has been drawn by Sissela Bok in relation to the WHO definition ( Bok, 2008 : 592). In passing, I also want to note that the label perfectionist is of course not supposed to refer to perfectionism in value theory, where it denotes an objective theory of the good.

5 Possibly the first philosopher of medicine to take note of this feature and the likely consequences was Owsei Temkin: ‘I do not think that I read too much into this formula [the WHO definition] if I believe that it tends to include moral values and to identify health with happiness. ( … ) But is the pursuit of happiness itself wholly a medical matter? Our life has many values and ( … ) happiness can sometimes be achieved at the sacrifice of health. ( … ) [I]f health is defined so broadly as to include morality, then the danger exists that the physician will also be burdened with all the duties of the medieval priest’ ( Temkin, 1949 : 20).

6 This needs to be qualified, because the term social was introduced fairly late in the drafting process. However, the point I am making here is to do with the fact that elements of well-being had been listed for some time during the drafting period and that the word complete was added to characterise these elements jointly.

7 The Technical Preparatory Committee itself relied on earlier drafts of senior members of related institutional bodies, especially the League of Nations Health Organization ( Larsen, 2022 ). Larsen gives a detailed account of the origins of the WHO definition, tracing it back to Henry Sigerist’s influential publications in the history, sociology and philosophy of medicine, dating mainly from the 1930ies. Sigerist’s ideas were not revisionary or highly original, though, at least not in its focus on positive health. The idea that health includes elements that cannot be captured by the phrase ‘absence of disease’ goes back to antiquity. Especially the notion of health as a form of equilibrium and—in modern terms—resilience has been known for centuries ( Edelstein, 1967 : 303ff.). So, even if Sigerist’s work probably had a role in finding the relevant formulations, the underlying ideas had been prevalent.

8 One of the members of the Technical Preparatory Committee, Szeming Sze, recalled 40 years later that James H.S. Gear ‘improved the wording’ ( WHO, 1988 : 33). However, there is no identifiable evidence to corroborate Sze’s recollection.

9 The notion of well-being here is a state of a person including their circumstances. It should not be interpreted as a mental state only, that is, as a kind of feeling.

10 It should also not be forgotten that the early focus of public health institutions, including the precursors of the WHO, was on the prevention of diseases, specifically communicable diseases. This speaks against assuming a focus on health enhancement.

11 Indeed, numerous researchers claim that although the WHO definition sets a political ambition, its main purpose is to set a framework that makes health measurable ( Salomon et al ., 2003 ; Rubinelli et al ., 2018 ; cf. Chatterji et al ., 2002 ).

12 In line with this reading, in more recent years, there was also a discussion in the WHO whether to add spiritual well-being to the definition ( WHO, 1997 : 2; cf. Larson, 1996 ; Nordenfelt, 2016 : 214). The discussion around a fourth aspect of well-being did not lead to official changes, though.

13 Bok also mentions that Sigerist was a close friend of Štampar’s, who was—as mentioned earlier—a member of the drafting group ( Bok, 2008 : 594).

14 Georges Canguilhem similarly declared that ‘[h]ealth is a set of securities and assurances ( … ), securities in the present, assurances for the future’ ( Canguilhem, 1966 : 198).

15 Surely not everyone would see the political negotiability of adequate health thresholds as an advantage. However, I am here concerned with a relative advantage over the perfectionist account of health.

16 Once the determinants of health are confused with health itself, there is an additional danger of conceptualising immorality and incivility as forms of health disruptions (cf. Farley 2008 : 56). WHO officials were not immune to this problem. For instance, in a memorandum called International Health of the Future (1943), Gautier wrote: ‘For health is more than the absence of illness; the word health implies something positive, namely physical, mental, and moral fitness. This is the goal to be reached’ ( Larsen, 2022 : 117; see also Chisholm, 1946 : 16; cf. Cueto et al ., 2019 : 33).

17 The otherwise philosophically important distinction between disease and illness does not matter for the purposes of my essay. I use the terms interchangeably for ease of reading.

18 An important and still highly recommendable early critique of the utopian standard of health is Rene Dubos’s Mirage of Health ( Dubos, 1959) .

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Essay on World Health Day for Students and Children

Essay on world health day.

World Health Organization celebrates global health day every year on 7th April worldwide to create awareness on the benefits of being healthy. On this day numerous programs and arrangements are curated by the World Health Organisation. World Health Day was first time celebrated worldwide in the year 1950. It is universal: “Health is Wealth”. It is the utmost important aspect of our existence which can’t be denied. We all know various types of diseases prevail in the environment due to which people suffer. It is necessary to spread awareness among people and to impart knowledge about health.

World Health Day – History

Every year, the World Health Organisation observes World Health Day on 7 April to draw the attention of the masses towards the importance of global health. World Health Organisation was formed in 1948 in Geneva. This day World Health Assembly was held the first time and it was decided to celebrate 7th April as World Health Day. On this day, various events with a particular theme are organized by Who at the international and national level.

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World Health Day: Activities

• At the global level, this day targets all the issues related to health and for this several programs are organized on a yearly basis by the WHO.
• It is celebrated worldwide by the government of all participant countries, NGO’s and other organizations.
• Health authorities from different countries participate in the celebrations with their pledges to support on the health issues worldwide.
• It acts as a reminder to people about the establishment of WHO and to spread awareness among people about major health issues in the world.
• WHO has worked on eradicating various serious health issues in developing countries like chickenpox, polio, smallpox, TB, leprosy, etc.

Themes of World Health Day since the year 2000

• 2000 – Safe Blood Start with me
• 2001 – Mental Health: Stop Exclusion, Dare to Care
• 2002 – Move for Health
• 2003 – Shape the Future of Life: Healthy Environments for Children
• 2004 – Road safety
• 2005 – Make every mother and child count
• 2006 – Working together for health
• 2007 – International health security
• 2008 – Protecting Health from the Adverse Effects of Climate Change
• 2009 – Save Lives, Make Hospitals Safe in Emergencies
• 2010 – Urbanization and Health: Make Cities Healthier
• 2011 – Antimicrobial Resistance: No Action Today, No Cure Tomorrow
• 2012 – Good Health Adds Life to Years
• 2013 – Hypertension: Silent Killer, Global Public Health Crisis
• 2014 – Vector-borne diseases
• 2015 – Food safety
• 2016 – Diabetes: Scale up prevention, strengthen care, and enhance surveillance
• 2017 – Depression: Let’s talk
• 2018 – Universal Health Coverage: everyone, everywhere

It is said that good Health provides better capabilities to work as per the requirements of the growing World and hence is very important. World Health Organisation (WHO)’s foundation was laid on the principle that all humans realize their right to the highest possible level of health. A slogan of “Health for all” is for more than seven decades old and works as a guiding vision.

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1002 words sample essay on World Health Organization

The Constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO) came into force on 7 April 1948. Since then, WHO is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence- based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends. In the 21st century, health is being considered a shared responsibility that involves equitable access to essential care and collective defence against transnational threats.

With the boundaries of public health action becoming blurred, WHO is increasingly operating in a complex and rapidly changing landscape that extends into other sectors that influence health opportunities and outcomes. WHO responds to these challenges using a six-point agenda that addresses two health objectives, two strategic needs, and two operational approaches. The six points in the agenda are promoting development; fostering health security; strengthening health systems; harnessing research, information and evidence; enhancing partnerships; and improving performance.

WHO’s agenda of health development is directed by the ethical principle of equity: Access to life-saving or health-promoting interventions should not be denied for unfair reasons, including those with economic or social roots. WHO activities aimed at health development give priority to health outcomes in poor, disadvantaged or vulnerable groups.

Its health and development agenda includes attainment of the health-related Millennium Development Goals, preventing and treating chronic diseases and addressing the neglected tropical diseases. It has fostered health security by strengthening the world’s ability to defend itself collectively against outbreaks by enforcing the revised International Health Regulations since June 2007.

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Strengthening of health systems is a high priority for WHO and it ensures that health systems reach poor and underserved populations of the world. It addresses areas such as the provision of adequate numbers of appropriately trained staff, sufficient financing, suitable systems for collecting vital statistics, and access to appropriate technology including essential drugs. It generates authoritative health information, in consultation with leading experts, to set norms and standards, articulate evidence-based policy options and monitor the evolving global heath situation.

WHO carries out its work with the support and collaboration of many partners, including UN agencies and other international organizations, donors, civil society and the private sector. By using the strategic power of evidence, WHO encourages partners implementing programmes within countries to align their activities with best technical guidelines and practices, as well as with the priorities established by countries.

As a means of improving its performance, WHO participates in ongoing reforms aimed at improving its efficiency and effectiveness, both at the international level and within countries.

Entitled “Engaging for Health”, the 11th General Programme of Work provides the framework for organization-wide programme of work, budget, resources and results for the 10-year period from 2006 to 2015. The General Programme of Work sets out core functions of WHO as: providing leadership on matters critical to health and engaging in partnerships where joint action is needed; shaping the research agenda and stimulating the generation, translation and dissemination of valuable knowledge; setting norms and standards and promoting and monitoring their implementation; articulating ethical and evidence-based policy options; providing technical support, catalyzing change, and building sustainable institutional capacity; and monitoring the health situation and assessing health trends.

WHO’s objective, as set out in its Constitution, is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health. The Constitution defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well- being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. The World Health Assembly the supreme decision-making body for WHO meets each year in May in Geneva, and is attended by delegations from all 193 Member States. While the headquarters of WHO are in Geneva, Switzerland, it has six regional offices and 147 country offices in which more than 8000 people from more than 150 countries work.

In addition to medical doctors, public health specialists, scientists and epidemiologists, WHO staff include people trained to manage administrative, financial, and information systems, as well as experts in the fields of health statistics, economics and emergency relief.

To mark the founding of the World Health Organization, a “World Health Day” has been celebrated on the 7th of April annually since 1950. Each year a theme is selected for World Health Day that highlights a priority area of concern for WHO. The celebration is a worldwide opportunity to focus on key public health issues that affect the international community. On this day, WHO launches longer-term advocacy programmes that continue well beyond 7 April.

The themes adopted by WHO since 2001 were: mental health, move for health, shape the future of life, road safety, make every mother and child count, working together for health, international health security, protecting health from climate change, and make hospitals safe in emergencies.

World Health Day 2010 focuses on urbanization and health. The theme was selected in recognition of the effect urbanization has on our collective health globally and for us all individually. Some facts on urbanization, released by WHO are: over 3 billion people live in cities; In 2007, the world’s population living in cities surpassed 50 per cent for the first time in history; and by 2030, six out of every 10 people will be city dwellers, rising to seven out of every 10 people by 2050.

With the campaign “1000 cities 1000 lives”, WHO has given a call for a global movement to make cities healthier. Events are being organized worldwide calling on cities to open up streets for health activities. Stories of urban health champions are being gathered to illustrate what people are doing to improve health in their cities.

The global goal of the campaign is to open up public spaces to health, whether it be activities in parks, town hall meetings, clean-up campaigns, or closing off portions of streets to motorized vehicles in 1000 cities. Another goal is to collect 1000 stories of urban health champions who have taken action and had a significant impact on health in their cities.

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An Essay Example On World Health Organization

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World Health Organization Essay

The World Health organization (WHO) is the leading organization in the world that devotes itself towards the improvement of an individual’s health of nearly seven billion people. This public organization is an affiliate of the UN or the United Nations with headquarters in Geneva Switzerland. Likewise, it’s the directing and coordinating authority for health matters within the system of the United Nations. WHO is responsible for the provision of health matters across the globe, shaping the health research agenda, and provide technical support to nations as well as to monitor and assess health trends. Based on World Health Organization this essay focuses on the analysis of the organizational job analysis process and its impact on the organization HRM (WHO, 2014).

Job analysis is a significant prerequisite for the effective administration of the human resources of an organization. This process involves gathering of information about a job. It actually specifies the tasks involved in a given job as well as the factors that affect the presentation of that job. The policy of WHO is to promote human resources development and health was established in 1976. The overwhelming majority of the healthcare organizations expenditures is for wages, salaries, training, benefits and supervision of workers. Thus the productivity and performance of these institutions depends upon the workers and the conditions of work performance. Two of the forces considered for major reforms in personnel subsystems in a healthcare setting in this organization is accountability and humanism (Siddique, 2004). Accountability can be defined as the processes to provide evidence that the expenditures for attainment of the set goals in healthcare actually achieves those set objectives or otherwise makes available the measurements of deficits and implementation of plans for improvement. Alternatively humanism means that healthcare should be concerned about the whole being of human beings rather than a cluster of presentation of symptoms, disabilities or diseases (Moore, 1999).

Job analysis process impacts the organizations HRM positively as it highlights on the need to have an approach for reformations which goes beyond the simple characterization of the work content or workers performance based upon systems that acknowledge the interrelatedness of each subsystem and its contribution towards the overall system performance. Otherwise, Task analysis based upon the functional job analysis well suits these requirements in Human resource management (Moore, 1999).

Moore, F. I. (1999).  Guidelines for Task Analysis and Job Design.  San Antonio, Texas: University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center.

Siddique, C. (2004). Job analysis: a strategic human resource management practice.  Int. J. of Human Resource Management   , 15  (1), 219–244.

WHO. (2014).  About WHO . Retrieved January 7, 2014, from World Health Organisation

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World Health Day Essay

500+ words world health day essay.

World Health Day is celebrated on April 7 every year all around the world. Every year, a theme is selected and the events around the year are focused on spreading awareness about it. World Health Day aims to draw the world’s attention to important global health issues concerning humanity.

Learners must go through the entire essay provided below and gather the points that help them in writing an effective essay. They can also get the list of CBSE Essays on different topics for their practice. It will help them to participate in various essay-writing competitions.

History of World Health Day

In the year 1948, the World Health Organisation conducted the first World Health Assembly. A decision was taken to select a day to be observed as “World Health Day”. As a result, the first World Health Day was celebrated on 7th April 1950. Since then, World Health Day has been observed every year on the same day.

Theme of World Health Day 2021

The theme of World Health Day 2021 was to ‘build a fairer, healthier world’. The World Health Organisation has given this theme to call people to act towards eliminating health inequities. It is a global campaign which runs for a year and aims to bring people together to build a healthier world for everyone. The campaign is designed to highlight the World Health Organisation’s constitutional principle, which states that ‘it is the fundamental right of every human being to enjoy the highest standard of health without distinction of economic and social conditions, racial or religious’. Similarly, the WHO selects a particular theme every year on World Health Day and works towards realising it.

Importance of World Health Day

For some people, good health may be the absence of illness. For others, it may be following a balanced diet or living a healthy lifestyle. In reality, good health is made up of several factors. As defined by the WHO, it is a ‘state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.’ World Health Day is held to mark WHO’s establishment and is seen as an occasion by the organisation to attract worldwide attention to major issues concerning health which are of universal concern each year. It is recognised worldwide by various governments and non-governmental organisations with an interest in public health issues.

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed one of the biggest threats to human life worldwide. It has also challenged public health like never before. The economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic is devastating as it has undercut the recent health field, pushed more people into poverty, resulted in food insecurity, and disrupted the entire health system. World Health Day gives us the opportunity to think about such situations and take steps to transform this world into a better and healthy place for everyone.

The vision of a healthier world is not a distant dream. It can be achieved with evidence-based health education and awareness of health issues. This dream can come true only when organisations such as schools, colleges, communities, health centres and volunteers, as well as private and public organisations, come together to spread the information about it and work towards it. Also, we must think of climate change and environmental degradation due to human activities. It is time to take steps to mitigate their negative effects and ensure a healthy life for everyone.

Students would have found this essay on “World Health Day” useful for improving their essay-writing skills. Visit the BYJU’S website to get the latest updates and study material on CBSE/ICSE/State Board/Competitive Exams at BYJU’S.

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Reading anxiety in children: everything you need to know, iep meetings and parent-teacher conferences: everything you need to know, college disability services and accommodations: everything you need to know, spam vs. phishing: how are these unwanted messages different, how to charge your iphone properly, encouraging your teenager to read: everything you need to know, 8 ways to service an air conditioner, 3 ways to stop a baby from vomiting, 3 ways to save instagram highlights, 3 ways to cite the world health organization (who) in apa style.

As a writer, researcher, or student, it is essential to understand the importance of properly citing authoritative sources in your academic writing. One such organization, which is highly regarded for its accurate and reliable health information, is the World Health Organization (WHO). In this article, we will discuss three ways to cite WHO in the American Psychological Association (APA) style for different types of sources.

1. Citing a WHO Website

Citing a webpage or an online article from WHO’s official website is quite simple. Here’s an example citation for a generic WHO webpage:

World Health Organization. (2020). Title of the webpage. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/url-of-the-page Remember to replace “Title of the webpage” with the actual title of the page you are citing. Also, make sure to replace “url-of-the-page” with the specific URL of that page. Note that APA does not require including retrieval date unless the cited content is likely to change over time.

2. Citing a WHO Publication or Report

If you are citing a publication or report released by WHO, it is essential to include details like author or editor names, title of the publication, publication year, and DOI (digital object identifier) if available. Here’s an example citation for a document released by WHO:

World Health Organization. (2019). Global health risks: Mortality and burden of disease attributable to selected major risks. World Health Organization. https://doi.org/10.XXXX/YYYY.ZZZZ

Do not forget to fill in placeholders “XXXX”, “YYYY”, and “ZZZZ” with the actual DOI information posted on the document.

3. Citing a WHO Data Set

If you use data sets provided by WHO for your research project or article, here’s how you can create an APA citation for them:

World Health Organization. (2020). Global Health Observatory Data Repository: Prevalence of stunting, wasting, and overweight [Data set]. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/indicators

Replace the information within brackets “[Data set]” with the specific data set you used from the organization’s Global Health Observatory Data Repository.

In conclusion, learning how to create accurate APA citations for different types of WHO sources will allow you to give proper credit where it is due, strengthen your argument, and help your readers find additional resources on their own. Always make sure to follow the APA citation guidelines closely to maintain the credibility and professionalism of your work.

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Medical Treatments

Why former nih director francis collins went public with his cancer diagnosis.

NPR's Scott Detrow spoke with the former director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, about his recent prostate cancer diagnosis.

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, we heard from a lot of people on this show, people who helped us try to understand what was going on and how to keep ourselves safe and how to get through a really challenging time. One of those people was Dr. Francis Collins. At the time, he was the director of the National Institutes of Health. Well, we learned on Friday that Dr. Collins is going through his own health crisis right now. He's been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer, and he wrote all about it in an article published at The Washington Post. Dr. Collins, welcome back to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

FRANCIS COLLINS: Thanks, Scott. Nice to be with you.

DETROW: I just want to start off - I was really sorry to hear about this diagnosis. How are you doing?

COLLINS: I'm doing OK. Not exactly what I would have hoped to be experiencing right now, but I'm feeling pretty fortunate that, thanks to a lot of surveillance and early detection, I'm in a good position with the surgery that's now coming up soon to expect that this cancer can be cured. And that is a lot different than if I hadn't had all of this attention to make sure that we were watching this closely.

DETROW: What was your first response to the news that not only did you have cancer, but a pretty serious form of it?

COLLINS: It's one of those moments that I guess we all have once in a while, where the words come at you and you realize my life is now different than it was five seconds ago.

DETROW: Yeah.

COLLINS: When they said that this cancer - having been previously a very slow-growing, not-much-to-see-here kind of version - now in the latest biopsies had switched into high gear, something called a Gleason 9 - and it only goes to 10 on that scale - I knew that it was going to be time for action - serious action, and everything that I had maybe planned for the coming weeks, months and years was going to be affected.

DETROW: You mentioned a surgery. Can you tell us about how you're treating this?

COLLINS: So because the cancer does seem to be completely still contained within the prostate, after much searching to be sure of that, then the best way to avoid a downstream outcome, which I really would like to avoid - where the cancer spreads elsewhere, like to bones or to lymph nodes or to liver, lungs or brain - is to actually get the prostate removed. If you want to use an analogy, if the horse is the cancer and the barn is the prostate, we're not just going to get rid of the horse, we're going to get rid of the barn, too, because...

COLLINS: ...We're just not quite sure how big that horse is. So the surgery is what's called a radical prostatectomy. It's done using a robot as well as a surgeon to try to limit the amount of recovery time, but also to be very precise in terms of how one does this, trying not to injure the other structures nearby, like the nerves and the vessels that can be kind of important.

DETROW: Are you worried about the treatment at all? I mean, this is to be blunt, surgery in a pretty intimate part of your body. And I think more broadly with cancer, a lot of people worry about the treatment. How - my dad's around your age. He's battling cancer right now. The treatment's working, but I see how much it takes out of him.

COLLINS: No, Scott, you're quite right, and I am worried about that. The surgery has gotten a lot better, but there's still plenty of opportunities for some men, and maybe that will be me, to end up with incontinence or with impotence because this is, as you say, a rather sensitive part of the male anatomy. And as hard as the surgeons try to try to take out the prostate and the cancer, there's a lot of other things nearby that can be temporarily or sometimes even permanently affected. And one has to have a realistic expectation walking into this that that could happen.

DETROW: Yeah. What are you hoping to gain by being so public about your diagnosis?

COLLINS: You know, maybe it feels like it would be a good thing to have more of a discussion about two things. One is doing this kind of regular early detection for cancers of all sorts - not just prostate cancer, but breast cancer, colon cancer. We fell way behind on a lot of those screens during COVID, for obvious reasons. People just weren't able to necessarily go in and have them done. We need to kick back in there because this is how you detect cancer early and save lives from lots of different areas of the body. So that was one reason.

The other is prostate cancer is particularly one of those that makes men uncomfortable, and I get that. And talking about it openly has not always been easy. And we need to get over that. And particularly men who have reached the point of age 50 or so, really need to think about what they can do to take care of themselves with the kind of screening that I had. I honestly think if I hadn't been in this circumstance of detecting something five years ago that said, ooh, there's something happening, following it closely with what we call active surveillance, and then discovering rather quickly the cancer had taken a bad turn, I probably wouldn't have known about this for several more years, at which point it might have presented by metastatic disease, which could not then be cured. So there's a message here. This kind of surveillance - even though a lot of people put it off, this can be lifesaving. And if there's some little part of my story that gets somebody interested in doing that for themselves, then it's worth being out there in the public.

DETROW: I imagine you've had health problems before over the course of your life, but probably nothing this serious. I'm wondering, being in this position, being on the other side of the conversation with a medical professional, have you learned something about medicine that maybe you didn't realize when you were the expert, when you were the person walking somebody through their options, as opposed to being the person listening to what your options are?

COLLINS: Oh yeah. It's one thing to be imagining what somebody is experiencing as you're giving them news that might be really serious and maybe even life-threatening. It's another to be the person in that spot. As many times as I have thought about what that feels like to be given a diagnosis of cancer, it's just a little different when it is coming at you. And I realize I had some of those same difficulties at first about being able to absorb this and listen carefully and get my head around exactly what was being said and what the consequences would be. So yeah, I think I will - when I next have the chance to be involved in this kind of circumstance as a physician, I'll have a different perspective.

DETROW: You know, you mentioned a couple times in the article where you talked about this news - you mentioned gratitude. Can you tell me what exactly you're grateful for?

COLLINS: I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to take part in this kind of early detection, which should be now available to everybody but hasn't broadly been accomplished in a lot of instances. And we have health inequities in our country that contribute to that. Without that access, I would not be in the place of being able to anticipate that this disease can be cured. I'm grateful to have the expertise of people at the NIH. I'm part of a clinical trial there, and therefore I'm hoping that whatever is learned about me can be widely shared and can teach people about other ways to deal with this disease.

I'm grateful with all the people that are around me who have been so supportive. Scott, I can't tell you that when this came out publicly, I just had this deluge of information and outreach from people, some of whom I haven't been around for a while, people who I have had wonderful, friendly relationships with. But just in the last day or so, all of these people that I considered friends have somehow crossed a line in being very comfortable saying, Francis, I love you. The word love has just come forward in a dramatically positive way. Maybe that's what it takes - is for something like this to get people to say the word. That's pretty touching. That's pretty amazing. I have...

DETROW: Well...

COLLINS: (Laughter) My heart is full of gratitude for that.

DETROW: That's a nice feeling. But let me actually - let me ask about that because, at the same time, I know that it's also a widespread feeling of when you hear that somebody, you know, has gotten a really serious diagnosis or something has really taken a bad turn with their health, sometimes people feel like, gosh, I don't even know what to say. I want to reach out, but I don't know what to say. You're being reached out to right now. What would you tell people who kind of wrestle with that?

COLLINS: Oh, I think what some of the people are reaching out to me with is a great example - to say, you know, I'm really supportive of you. I know you're going through a tough time. I just want you to know I love you. That was just astounding. That's a whole lot better than my thoughts and prayers are with you, which was sort of the old way of saying it. These are very genuine statements of affection that I have very much cherished.

DETROW: Speaking of praying, though, I did want to ask about how you ended your essay. I'm going to read a quote from the end of it. You write...

(Reading) A little over a year ago, when I was praying for a dying friend, I had the experience of receiving a clear and unmistakable message. This has almost never happened to me. It was just this - don't waste your time. You may not have much left.

You are getting treated. You are moving forward. You feel like you have a clear path to beat this cancer, to keep going. But tell me how you're thinking about that sentiment now, what you want to do with the time you've got left.

COLLINS: Well, getting a cancer diagnosis does focus your mind on that a bit, doesn't it?

COLLINS: I am a person of faith, and even before this diagnosis, I had that particular revelation that you just read about that I don't know - quite know how to interpret. And in fact, of course, that's true of all of us. We don't know how much time we have left, and we shouldn't be wasting that time. But it feels more acutely true right now that if there are things I am doing that are not necessarily contributing much to bettering the people around me or the world, maybe those things ought to be deprioritized. And I had to really think about, how do I want to focus my time on giving the most I can to my family, to my friends, to my profession, to my faith, so that I won't look back and say, oh, I really kind of wasted that? That feels like a moment to pay attention to, especially when you have a significant cancer that's just landed in the middle of your life course.

DETROW: Yeah. That's Dr. Francis Collins. He was the director of the National Institutes of Health from 2009 to 2021. Thanks for talking to us, and we'll be thinking about you as you go through with this.

COLLINS: Well, thanks a lot, Scott. It's a pleasure to talk with you today.

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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NPR suspends editor who criticized his employer for what he calls an unquestioned liberal worldview

FILE - The headquarters for National Public Radio (NPR) stands on North Capitol Street, April 15, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

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NEW YORK (AP) — National Public Radio has suspended a veteran editor who wrote an outside essay criticizing his employer for, in his view, journalism that reflects a liberal viewpoint with little tolerance for contrary opinions.

Uri Berliner, a senior editor on NPR’s business desk, was suspended five days without pay, according to an article posted Tuesday by NPR’s media correspondent, David Folkenflik. He wrote that Berliner was told he violated the company’s policy that it must approve work done for outside news organizations.

Berliner told NPR that he was not appealing the suspension. An NPR spokeswoman said the company would not comment on individual personnel matters.

He wrote his essay last week for The Free Press. Berliner wrote that NPR has always had a liberal bent, but for most of his 25-year tenure had an open-minded, curious culture.

“In recent years, however, that has changed,” he wrote. “Today, those who listen to NPR or read its coverage online find something different: the distilled worldview of a very small segment of the U.S. population.”

His commentary became an instant hit with outside conservative activists who have made similar criticisms of NPR. He specifically criticized his employer for its coverage of former President Donald Trump, of accusations against the president’s son, Hunter Biden, and of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following publication, NPR’s top editor, Edith Chapin, said she strongly disagrees with Berliner’s conclusions and is proud to stand behind NPR’s work.

One of his NPR colleagues,“Morning Edition” co-host Steve Inskeep, wrote on Substack Tuesday that Berliner’s essay in The Free Press was filled with errors and assumptions.

“If Uri’s ‘larger point’ is that journalists should seek wider perspectives, and not just write stories that confirm their prior opinions, his article is useful as an example of what to avoid,” Inskeep wrote.

Left exposed: NPR editor resigns after suspension

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A senior editor at NPR has resigned after the news organization suspended him for penning an essay at an outside media outlet criticizing what he described as his employer’s liberal bias.

Uri Berliner, a senior editor on NPR’s business desk, resigned Wednesday, a day after a five-day suspension handed down by his bosses last Friday became public.

“I am resigning from NPR, a great American institution where I have worked for 25 years,” Bernilner said in his resignation letter to CEO Katherine Maher, which he also posted to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

“I do not support calls to defund NPR.  I respect the integrity of my colleagues and wish for NPR to thrive and do important journalism. But I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cite in my Free Press essay.”

NPR’s media correspondent, David Folkenflik, wrote in a post Tuesday that Berliner was told he violated the company’s policy that it must approve work done for outside news organizations.

Maher, a former tech executive appointed in January as NPR’s chief executive, has been criticized by conservative activists for social media messages that disparaged former President Donald Trump. The messages predated her hiring at NPR.

NPR’s public relations chief said the organization does not comment on individual personnel matters.

In his essay, written for the online Free Press site, Berliner said NPR is dominated by liberals and no longer has an open-minded spirit. He traced the change to coverage of Trump’s presidency.

“There’s an unspoken consensus about the stories we should pursue and how they should be framed,” he wrote. “It’s frictionless — one story after another about instances of supposed racism, transphobia, signs of the climate apocalypse, Israel doing something bad and the dire threat of Republican policies. It’s almost like an assembly line.”

He said he’d brought up his concerns internally and no changes had been made, making him “a visible wrong-thinker at a place I love.”

His commentary became an instant hit with outside conservative activists who have made similar criticisms of NPR.

In the essay’s wake, NPR top editorial executive, Edith Chapin, said leadership strongly disagreed with Berliner’s assessment of the outlet’s journalism and the way it went about its work.

It’s not clear what Berliner was referring to when he talked about disparagement by Maher.

In a lengthy memo to staff members last week, she wrote: “Asking a question about whether we’re living up to our mission should always be fair game: after all, journalism is nothing if not hard questions. Questioning whether our people are serving their mission with integrity, based on little more than the recognition of their identity, is profoundly disrespectful, hurtful and demeaning.”

One of his NPR colleagues,”Morning Edition” co-host Steve Inskeep, wrote on Substack Tuesday that Berliner’s essay in The Free Press was filled with errors and assumptions.

“If Uri’s ‘larger point’ is that journalists should seek wider perspectives, and not just write stories that confirm their prior opinions, his article is useful as an example of what to avoid,” Inskeep wrote.

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Opinion | Reaching its limits: CNN’s Gayle King-Charles Barkley show ends

A once-a-week show on wednesday at 10 p.m. eastern who thought this was a good idea.

Well, that didn’t last long.

CNN’s idea to put Gayle King and Charles Barkley together for a once-a-week, Wednesday 10 p.m. Eastern show seemed like a good idea. Wait, check that. I meant to say, who thought this was a good idea?

King is a TV pro. Barkley is typically must-see TV. But this show — called “King Charles,” in which King and Barkley talked about a variety of topics, including politics, TV, music, pop culture and important issues — never seemed to click with viewers, maybe in large part because it just seemed like it was thrown on at an odd time.

All along, CNN said it was a limited series, but Monday, it reached the end. The show lasted six months and 14 episodes.

This comes as no surprise. According to the New York Post’s Ariel Zilber , “King Charles” averaged less than 460,000 viewers. Meanwhile, its cable news competitors — Fox News and MSNBC — are drawing above 1.5 million viewers each in the same time slot.

The odd Wednesday time was mostly due to Barkley’s schedule, much of which is tied up working on TNT’s popular NBA studio show, “Inside the NBA.” Then there’s King and her early morning hours as co-host of “CBS Mornings.” I had originally written in this post that CNN had “pulled the plug” on the show.

A CNN spokesperson told me Tuesday, “‘King Charles’ has come to the end of its limited run, as we announced when it launched last fall that it would run through spring. The show was a great addition to CNN’s lineup, with the youngest, most affluent, and most diverse P2+ audience in its cable news time period and brought new audiences to CNN. It’s inaccurate to report that the show was canceled as it went through its full run and duration of the limited series. We hope to work with both of these incredible talents in the future as they balance their very busy schedules.”

I asked earlier who thought this was a good idea. The show was the brainchild of then-CNN boss Chris Licht, who was looking to shake up prime time in hopes of helping CNN catch up in the ratings with Fox News and MSNBC.

But with Licht long gone (CNN parted ways with him last June), and Mark Thompson now in charge, the show didn’t stand a chance with such dismal viewership numbers.

Turning up no answers

In January, Daniel Boguslaw and Ryan Grim — reporters from the nonprofit news outlet The Intercept — wrote that The New York Times shelved an episode of its popular “The Daily” podcast “amid a furious internal debate about the strength of the paper’s original reporting” about sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas last Oct. 7.

The Times then launched an investigation to try and learn who leaked that information to The Intercept. The results of that investigation were announced Monday. And the answer? The Times doesn’t know.

Times executive editor Joe Kahn told staff in a note Monday, “We did not reach a definitive conclusion about how this significant breach occurred. We did identify gaps in the way proprietary journalistic material is handled, and we have taken steps to address these issues.”

Kahn added, “I want to reiterate the central concern in this case, which is that we need to be able to rely on our colleagues to maintain confidentiality during the reporting and editing process. Reporters, editors and producers need to be able to have candid exchanges and disagreements about the best way to tackle a difficult piece of journalism with the understanding that those exchanges will strengthen the story, not become the story.”

The Wall Street Journal’s Alexandra Bruell wrote, “Charlotte Behrendt, director of policy and internal investigations at the Times, oversaw the probe, interviewing close to 20 people over the course of many weeks. The investigation became contentious at times, with the union filing a grievance alleging that the company was targeting a group of staffers of Arab and Middle Eastern descent. Times leaders said the allegations are false.”

The memo, obtained here by The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple , concluded with Kahn saying, “The breach that occurred should upset anyone who wants to have transparency in our editorial processes and to encourage candid exchanges about stories as they evolve. We work together with trust and collegiality everyday on everything we produce, and I have every expectation that this incident will prove to be a singular exception to an important rule.”

Four years ago

Veteran media writer Brian Stelter has a new piece out. This one is in Vanity Fair: “Here’s What Donald Trump’s America Was Actually Like Four Years Ago.”

It centers on Trump’s question, which is so often asked by those trying to unseat the current president: Are you better off today than you were four years ago?

Well, exactly four years ago we were in the still-early stages of what turned out to be the COVID-19 pandemic. And it was around this time four years ago that Trump, who was president then, was seemingly dismissing the seriousness of COVID-19 and wanting life to carry on as normal — that is, not wanting to shut everything down.

This is where the media comes in, pointing out exactly what was happening four years ago. In other words, answering the question asked by Trump and many of his supporters.

Stelter wrote, “In an emergency, leaders can either help or hurt. They can rise to the occasion or fail to lead at all. Trump’s record speaks for itself. But Politico deputy managing editor for politics Sam Stein recently observed that, according to polling data, many voters give Trump a pass for the COVID year of his presidency. Or, at least, don’t really hold him responsible for it. I get it. I don’t want to revisit the COVID year of Trump’s presidency either. But it’s crucial to remember.”

Civil War on film

I haven’t seen Alex Garland’s new film “Civil War,” but Los Angeles Times culture columnist and critic Mary McNamara has and she writes, “In trying to hedge its politics, ‘Civil War’ betrays its characters — and the audience.”

That’s the headline. In her review, McNamara writes, “It is a powerful film, which Garland has said he made to underscore the importance of journalism: to remind us that much of what we know about the world is a direct result of journalists telling and showing us what is going on at any given moment. Even if their lives and/or mental health are at stake.”

Later, McNamara writes, “By attempting to keep his film ‘above’ the current political fray, Garland comes close to the both sides-ism that too many journalists are expected (or have chosen) to embrace in an attempt to prove lack of bias. But the arbitrary demand for ‘balance’ should never be confused with objectivity, which requires, among many qualities, an understanding that not all things are equal in importance, relevance or, if it comes to that, blame.”

And here’s The Guardian’s Adrian Horton with “From Scoop to Civil War: why is it so hard to portray journalism on screen?”

Remember his attack

Author Salman Rushdie is out with a new book today called “Knife,” which revolves around the August 2022 incident in which he was attacked by a man with a knife during a lecture appearance at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York.

Rushdie, 76, was stabbed in the face, neck, chest, abdomen, thigh and hand. He lost his right eye in the attack. He told Anderson Cooper on Sunday’s “60 Minutes” that he didn’t want to write a book about what happened, but felt he had no choice.

Rushdie said, “I need to focus on, you know, to use the cliché, the elephant in the room. And the moment I thought that, kinda something changed in my head. And it then became a book I really very much wanted to write.”

Rushdie told Cooper that he had a premonition two days before the incident on stage. He nearly canceled his appearance but decided to go through with it.

Rushdie writes in his book that he remembers being on stage and, “Then, in the corner of my right eye — the last thing my right eye would ever see — I saw the man in black running towards me down the right-hand side of the seating area.”

He added, “I confess, I had sometimes imagined my assassin rising up in some public forum or other, and coming for me in just this way. So my first thought when I saw this murderous shape rushing towards me was, ‘So it’s you. Here you are.’”

The attack lasted 27 seconds. Rushdie survived, but said there were no revelations from his near-death experience, telling Cooper, “there’s no revelation to be had.”

For more on Rushdie and his new book, check out The New York Times’ Sarah Lyall with “He Was Blinded in One Eye, but Salman Rushdie’s Vision Is Undiminished.”

Sing us a song, you’re the …

Singer-songwriter Billy Joel, shown here in 2018. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Billy Joel fans are losing their marbles because CBS cut short a taped concert that aired Sunday night. The concert, originally recorded on March 28, celebrated Joel’s 100th show of his long-running residency at New York City’s famed Madison Square Garden.

The airing on CBS started a bit late because The Masters golf tournament ran a little long earlier in the evening. So the Joel special was cut short in the Eastern and Central Time Zones, right in the middle of his classic song, “Piano Man.” ( Here’s what it looked like.)

That’s when Joel’s fans blew up social media, and CBS, with their complaints.

Look, I’m fine with Billy Joel, but are we really complaining about not hearing a full version of “Piano Man” for the 10 billionth time?

CBS put out an apology on Monday, saying, “A network programming timing error ended last night’s Billy Joel special approximately two minutes early in the Eastern and Central Time Zones. We apologize to Mr. Joel, his fans, our affiliated stations, and our audience whose viewing experience was interrupted during the last song.”

To make up for it, CBS announced it will broadcast the concert in its entirety on Friday at 9 p.m. Eastern.

Media tidbits

• The New York Times’ Matthew Goldstein and Joe Rennison with “Trump Media Stock Plunges, Extending Recent Losses.”
• And speaking of that, The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell with “Small-time investors in Trump’s Truth Social reckon with stock collapse.”
• Mediaite’s Diana Falzone with “Daily Beast Shakeup: Barry Diller Taps Two Media Vets To Turn Site Around.”
• The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch writes about the CBS broadcaster who covered his 40th and final Masters this past weekend: “In Verne Lundquist’s final Masters moment, the hour belonged to him.”
• The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand writes that longtime New York Yankees radio voice John Sterling is retiring. And Sports Illustrated’s Jimmy Traina talked with the radio legend .
• For Harper’s Magazine, Daniel Bessner with “The Life and Death of Hollywood. Film and television writers face an existential threat.”

More resources for journalists

• Delve more deeply into your editing skills with Poynter ACES Intermediate Certificate in Editing .
• Editorial Integrity and Leadership Initiative is a fellowship for public media journalists. Apply by April 22.
• Hiring? Post jobs on The Media Job Board — Powered by Poynter, Editor & Publisher and America’s Newspapers.
• Get an AI ethics framework for your newsroom. Start here.

Update: The lead item was updated to include CNN’s response that the network had always intended for the “King Charles” show to end in the spring of 2024, and that it would be inaccurate to say the network “pulled the plug” on the show.

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected] .

The Poynter Report is our daily media newsletter. To have it delivered to your inbox Monday-Friday, sign up here .

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